Trump's Comey memo: a 21st century Watergate? - France 24

Is Donald Trump the new Richard Nixon? That is the question being asked by media commentators and politicians of all stripes following Tuesday's explosive allegations that he asked the head of the FBI to drop an investigation into one of his aides.

“I hope you can let this go,” were the words Trump allegedly used when asking then FBI director James Comey, in February, if he could put a stop to a probe into his national security adviser Michael Flynn and his ties with Russia - ties that forced Trump to fire Flynn less than a month after appointing him to the post.

Comey could not "let it go" and, three months later, he himself was dismissed by the US president.

Within moments of reports of that February conversation surfacing, the term "Watergate" was across social media and news sites.

"It's reaching the point where it's of Watergate size and scale," said Republican senator John McCain. His Democratic colleague Patrick Leahy called it "nothing less than Nixonian".